DISQUS

punctuative! by Matt Winn: Who Needs Doctors in 2030?

  • Guy Semmes · 2 years ago
    A decrease in MD's by 2030 is a real long shot even considering all the technological advances or the possibility of Socialized medicine. But if you take the Insurance companies out of the equation and the drug marketing dollars then I'm in.
  • matt_winn · 2 years ago
    Guy,

    Thanks for weighing in. I'm still standing behind tech advances which should not only obviate the need for doctors in many circumstances, but also enable low-cost outsourcing. As example, doctors are already operating remotely on patients (see Wikipedia article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_surgery).

    I'm also placing a big bet on education and real-time info services. There's no way we remain as ill-informed about how our everyday actions (nutrition, exercise, stress) impact our health over the next quarter century.

    Best,
    Matt
  • David Dufresne · 2 years ago
    Great post Matt,

    I will definitely check out that book. And thanks for the AO link, I had to miss that session. Tech in healthcare in a hot topic in Canada, where the costs of our socialized system are getting harder to control, with population aging and all other factors considered. But the shift to new technologies is slow. Our governments aren't exactly heat-seekers and early-adopters... Same goes for doctors.

    But I tend to agree with your prediction. One of our pf companies http://www.newittech.com/ are making the same bet and they're getting a lot of traction, mostly in the US (not surprising, since the technology buyers are more ROI-sensitive) and France (more unexpected).
  • matt_winn · 2 years ago
    Thanks, David, for your kind words and pointing out New IT Healthcare. Our own investment in the DM/wellness space is HealthMedia (http://www.healthmedia.com). After seeing this video (http://video.zdnet.com/CIOSessions/?p=81), I'm realizing that "telemonitoring" via implanted device is closer than I expected. If you take the time to follow the link and watch the video, you'll see Harvard Medical School CIO John Halamka describe an RFID device that's implanted in his arm amongst other interesting tidbits.

    Best,
    Matt